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How to Make Fabric Yarn

A couple weeks ago, I shared how to make yarn from an old t-shirt, and based on the number of times I’ve seen it pinned, you guys were into it. The thing with t-shirt yarn is that one t-shirt doesn’t yield all that much yarn. I mean, the cross-body phone case pattern I shared took most of one t-shirt’s worth of yarn to make. But what about when you’re thinking about projects on a larger scale? That’s when I recommend you try your hands at making fabric (a.k.a. jersey) yarn. It’s super easy, and if you get your hands on a set of jersey sheets at the thrift store, you can upcycle that into yarn using the same technique I’m about to share. It’s so easy and the effect fabric yarn has on knit and crochet projects is something I’m LOVING right now!

Supplies

Directions

Start by cutting the selvage off of your fabric’s edges. Most fabrics you buy come with an edging woven specially so that it won’t fray or ravel. That’s great for the fabric as it sits on its bolt at the store, but for yarn creation purposes, you want that stuff gone.

The selvage will stretch a little differently than the body of the fabric. Pictured below, you can see how it immediately rolled up like a scared bug when I cut it away from the fabric’s body. The rest of the fabric didn’t do that when cut, which means it will result in weird patches of your knitting or crochet project that could have a different gauge when you work with your DIY yarn.

In this picture, the selvage fabric is pictured on top and the yarn is on the bottom. See the difference?

Work around your fabric in a jointed spiral, like this, to make the strip of continuous fabric.

I recommend balling your yarn as you go – the whole point here is to make enough yarn to make more than a tiny project, which means you’ll be cutting and winding for awhile. If your hands start to hurt, take a break! I bruised my knuckle and made my tendons achier than necessary before I realized this was more than a single sitting project! (Oops.)

That’s really it! You just need to make sure to buy the right fabric and cut it into a single, long, yarn-like piece of fabric. Between the t-shirt yarn and this fabric yarn, I might be skipping the yarn store more often in the summer to experiment with this fun fiber alternative.

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a knitting, crochet and crafts designer. She first learned to knit at age 8 from a grandmother who saw in her a need for something to keep her busy. She's now a full time designer, video host, blogger & teacher. You can keep up with her designs and more by following handsoccupied on your favorite social network.

Hi! I love this and making tshirt yarn and was looking into using the jersey fabric to get more consistent yarn. I just experimented with a small bit of unusable tshirt shaped like a rectangle using this method. I was curious how the corners of yours did when stretched out (when you turn the cut at the ends of the fabric)? Because mine were ugly and stuck out quite a bit. I’m not exactly an expert with scissors so I was just looking for some tips for this! Thanks!

Hi Stefanie – I left the corners sort of wild, but if you cut your fabric into an oval before cutting and are careful to cut a consistent width, you won’t end up with flaps sticking out wider than the rest of the yarn (does that make sense?). And the yardage you get out of your fabric will totally vary depending on how thick you cut it – the thicker it is, the few yards you’ll get out of your fabric. I have no idea if this helps – let me know! -Heidi :)

I cut most of the fabric perpendicular to the stripes, so the bands of solid grey & yellow are just hidden within the pictured ball of yarn. To see the project I made with the yarn pictured, see this post.

Your yarn looks beautiful. I tried out the method but had a lot of problems with the corners. No matter how I pulled, the corners won’t curl in nicely. It just stuck out. So the necklace project I tried to make look kind of awkward with parts sticking out…

It’s up to you. Joining fabric yarn can be a pain and result in you having two layers of fabric a the join, which also results in places with different thickness. It all depends on your desire to weave in ends and the finished look you’re hoping for. :)

Unfortunately, that’s the nature of knit fabric. If you’ve ever knit something in stockinette stitch, aka knit one row, purl one row when you’re working flat, you’ll know that a characteristic of that is curled edges that you need to work around. Most knit fabric is a tiny equivalent of stockinette stitch, so when it’s cut, there’s curl to it. My best advice is to work with a fabric that has a decent looking “wrong side.” Solids are great for this!

I have been searching for an answer to this same issue. I have so many pieces of knit clothing I’d love to make into yarn, but the “white” side (back) always seems to wind up on the outside of the “curl.” However, I recently purchased a “shred” scarf from a company who has apparently figured out a way to get the knit to roll the other way, so that the “good” side is out. It seems to be slightly stiff with some sort of sizing. Also, I purchased another scarf from a big-box store that was strips of knit fabric braided together. Again, the “good” side was on the outside of the curl. What is the secret??? I’d love to know.

They are probably somehow creating the fabric somewhat differently. It’s just like when you knit in stockinette stitch and it curls inward toward the knit side. Since the fabric you’re cutting is knit, it curls inward toward toward that knit side as well.